Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Sicilian Vespers, in Italian history, name given the rebellion staged by the Sicilians against the Angevin French domination of Sicily; the rebellion broke out at Palermo at the start of Vespers on Ea...

(Encyclopedia) Babbage, Charles băbˈĭj [key], 1792–1871, English mathematician and inventor. He devoted most of his life and expended much of his private fortune and a government subsidy in an attempt to perfec...

(Encyclopedia) Allais, Maurice Félix Charles môrēsˈ shärl älĕˈ [key], 1911–2010, French economist, Ph.D. Univ. of Paris, 1949. After working in the French mine administration, he joined the École National...

(Encyclopedia) Ferdinand VI, b. 1712 or 1713, d. 1759, king of Spain (1746–59), son of Philip V by his first queen, Marie Louise of Savoy. When Ferdinand succeeded his father, his stepmother, Elizabeth Farnese, lo...

(Encyclopedia) Angoulême, Charles de Valois, comte d'Auvergne, duc d' shärl də välwäˈ kôNt dōvĕrnˈyə dük däNgo͞olĕmˈ [key], 1573–1650, illegitimate son of King Charles IX of France. He turned again...

(Encyclopedia) Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin shärl ōgüstăNˈ săNt-böv [key], 1804–69, French literary historian and critic. The first major professional literary critic, he developed the art of appreciating...

(Encyclopedia) Louis I, 1838–89, king of Portugal (1861–89), son of Maria II and Ferdinand II. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his brother Peter V. His reign was marked by much political turmoil and b...

(Encyclopedia) Roger of Loria, c.1245–1304, Sicilian-Aragonese admiral. An adherent of Manfred, last Hohenstaufen king of Sicily, he left Sicily for Aragón after Manfred's defeat (1266) by the Angevin claimant to...

(Encyclopedia) Coquerel, Athanase Laurent Charles ätänäzˈ lōräNˈ shärl kôkrĕlˈ [key], 1795–1868, French Protestant clergyman, noted for his eloquence as a preacher. From 1832 he was pastor of the Reform...

(Encyclopedia) Alphonse älfôNsˈ [key], 1220–71, count of Poitiers and of Toulouse, brother of King Louis IX of France. By his marriage to the daughter of Raymond VII, count of Toulouse, he inherited Raymond's l...